Taro T

Agree. And do believe that is the team's goal - to be a Stanley Cup contender next season. Adams specifically has said he won't make winning the Stanley Cup the official hell or high water goal because there is too much luck involved in winning any one particular year. But his goal is to consistently be a Stanley Cup contender and everything that has happened to date makes me believe that goal legitimately becomes the goal this coming season. And as such, do believe that he is going to target an upgrade in net, a top 4 D-man, and a 4 C. Because those are the pieces that are missing to take them from they have a chance of doing that next year to they should be doing that next year.

Sorry. Didn't realize the Pacific division went to 10 teams with the addition of the 32nd team. They ONLY have 7 teams make the playoffs, so they have 3 teams miss out. My bad. D'oh!

Umm, Adams actually did make that move you are looking for once. He traded for Matt Murray. The trade was nixed by Murray, but that doesn't mean that Adams didn't put an offer that was acceptable to another GM for a veteran player. He also brought in Lyubushkin who is also a vet player. Expect (hope?) the Sabres bring in a vet like Varlamov and will give the crease to whichever goalie they still have under contract come October that is playing the best and his understudy will be the 2nd best of the bunch. And if there is no real separation between the top 2, they'd have a 1A / 1B situation. Also expect the vet will initially be given the starter's role and that Levi will be the 2nd guy but that will change by the following season at the latest and possibly by Christmas.

It"s actually 24 of 32. 4 divisions w/ unequal #'s of teams, so only the bottom 2 (bottom 3 in the 10 team division,) in each division don't make the playoffs. Amerks division has 7 teams, so 5 get in. those teams below 4th have to play a best of 3 game series against a team above them to get into the regular best of 7 16 team tourney. In the Amerks division the only play in round is 4 v 5. The division that has 9 10 teams out west has 7 get in and only the 1st place team gets a bye to the best of 7.

No. The 1st tiebreaker is Regulation Wins. Not total wins. The 2nd tiebreaker is ROW. Again, not total wins. Total wins is the 3rd tiebreaker. Then head to head (based on an even # of games played between the 2 teams, otherwise the 1st game in the city they played an extra game gets dropped).

Sure does seem that way.

And am not explaining this for you, but rather people reading our discussion. You like it. Fine. That doesn't mean that it isn't garbage. Am merely pointing out why that is the case for those that aren't as well versed in the topic. And remember, the reason this came up here is somebody asked what that metric was. So, there are people that are unfamiliar with it.

Simple. The league wants to incentivize winning in regulation and wants to deemphasize a glorified skills competition.

Is what it is. 6 teams were within 2 wins of a DeLuca 0.500. The stat says 4 of the 6 should've made the playoffs. Only 2 of them actually did. A stat that fails 1/3 of the time for anybody that has a record near the metric is IMHO trash. NHL 0.600 has incorrectly predicted a team making the playoffs exactly once in the modern era and that happened under very unusual circumstances over 50 years ago. You hit that mark, you make the playoffs. Period.

You know, the starting center and 1 of his wingers for the team that knocked the Sabres out of the playoffs most recently.

Sorry, it is a trash metric and the appeal of it is purely emotional.

If Thompson and Cozens are on the same line, let Cozens primarily take the C duties in his own end and let Thompson tend to be that 3F more with Cozens being 1F or 2F (basically, having Cozens as the W in the offensive zone with Tage as the C there). Very much the way Briere and Leino did it back the last time the Sabres were in the playoffs. Note, this doesn't mean that the expectation is they will be together again next year; just one example of how they could make it work.

The problem of being Kyle Okposo. Let's see: multimillionaire; hot wife; seemingly great kids; very well liked by his co-workers; loved by many in his community; on the verge of retiring and moving to where he grew up at an age where he can easily enjoy another 50 years of a great life. We should all be lucky enough to have these kinds of problems. ;)

Possibly. Wouldn't expect it though. He doesn't get top PP usage. But 70 points would definitely be possible.

It's a useless metric that means nothing except your team managed to win (whether it be in regulation, overtime, or via a shootout) in at least 1/2 the games you played. People will tell you it's a wonderful proxy for getting into the playoffs except when it isn't. The Sabres won 42 games including their 9 OT wins and 3 SO wins. So, it looks like they were above 0.500 and the disciples will tell you they should be in the playoffs. But in regulation, their record was only 30-33-19. So, they were very good this year in the non-hockey portion of the game and a smidge under so-so in the hockey portion of the game. They are 1 of 2 teams that hit that illustrious threshold that didn't make the playoffs. NHL 0.600 is the metric that matters. Had the Sabres reached it, they'd've been in the playoffs.

Still want Varlamov paired with him. They need 2 guys they have deserved faith that they can get the job done should 1 falter or go down to injury. Comrie or UPL MIGHT be good enough as a backup to play 25 games. But they can't risk that.

Made that same comment to the wifey. Wtf?

2 points short. They didn't have the tiebreaker over anybody.

91 points. Okposo was right. They ARE an NHL team.

You bet on the Habs to win? Who are they playing, the Expos?

Hope the stupid Aisles sweep the Canes then either get thumped by or sweep the other metro NYC team they'd face. Because the league deserves having lousy hockey in the playoffs with the way they make decisions.

Really want to see Rousek get a point tonight. Not many rookies end up over a PPG players. ;)

Pretty sure you could have gotten really good odds betting on that to happen.

Mitts and Tuch need 1 more point each for big milestones.

1 more point for 60.